At the end of 2024, Bob Mendonsa, Founder and CEO of Naomi’s Village, shared a message he received from Matt Buckwalter, the Head of School at Linville Hill Christian School in Pennsylvania. Matt has come to Kenya with over 100 of his students over the past seven years, and has made an incredible impact on us in the process. Here is his message, which should serve as an encouragement to us all:
I am writing to share an experience that I had this morning that was centered around NV. Here is what happened:
I awoke before 4 and decided to head outside into the predawn darkness to spend some time alone with God. This fall has been unusually warm in PA, however the temps have fallen this month and the air which greeted me this morning was a jolting 22 degrees. As I walked out our driveway to the back road that winds between the Amish farms that wrap around our property, my eyes were drawn upwards to a cloudy, almost smoky sky where the moon was peering through clouds as it descended to the northwest. I love the early mornings and there is something especially stilling and majestic about a chilling December morning here that resets me, that reminds me of my perspective before God. As I looked up, I saw a shooting star…in response I followed it and walked further to the west climbing the subtle rise that overlooks our property. As I walked, I realized that I was thinking about Millicent and all that has taken place in her life over the last 15 years to lead to her improbable visit to Pennsylvania this Christmas. She arrives tomorrow and I am thrilled that she will be able to spend the days leading up to Christmas with our sons and daughters and grandchildren here in Lancaster County. That thread of thoughts took me to NV, to the hinge of history that that place has become for me personally as well as many of our students. I smiled inside as I thought of the unlikely way that (what is now more than 100) students from Lancaster, PA have made their way to the hills outside Mai Mahiu, Kenya and discovered the oasis of life that you and Julie have carved out in that place. It truly must be a God-story that has allowed so many of us from here – from our Amish and Mennonite backgrounds to connect so often and so deeply with the children of that region. What a God-story.
As I pondered all of this and particularly Millicent’s arrival tomorrow, I was drawn to a moment during my last visit to Naomi’s Village. It was our final full day at NV and though we were scheduled for safari, Allison asked me if I would consider a change of plans to allow me to spend some time with Milicent, Stella and Mary, who were then studying and serving at Wendo. I readily agreed, left our team in the capable hands of our other chaperones and settled into the seat next to Simon in one of the Cruisers for what became one of my all-time favorite days in Kenya. As Simon and I drove out to Nakuru, I asked him questions about his life as he drove me through the region in which he had been brought up and walked me through his journey with God. We laughed, cried and prayed together as we exchanged stories of our faith journeys with each other. I recognized the sense of brotherhood that, though our time together had been comparatively brief, develops at times as I travel and interact with others around the world.
Wendo proved to be an amazing experience as I had an opportunity to tour the facilities briefly with Charles and hear his heart and how the property had developed from the dreams God had given him. It was a joy to see Mary, Millicent, and Stella emerge from the dining area to meet us before the five of us headed to Nakuru for lunch at KFC.
To sit with them on the second floor of the KFC there in Nakuru and hear about what they had been learning during their time at Wendo was incredibly encouraging. I know from our own efforts to build a community of faith among the young people here in Lancaster County, that the lies of the prevailing culture often eclipse our best intentions and efforts to see young people rescued from the strong current of empty and vain philosophies of this age that so often capture them. Here in this restaurant, I listened (and watched) as Stella – who wouldn’t allow me to see her smile during my first visit to NV back in 2018 – was glowing as she shared with us what she had been learning at the camp. The transformation that was happening in her life was tangible. Likewise, as Millicent shared, I asked her to talk with me about the most impactful part of her time at Wendo. She quickly identified the trauma training that they had received. As I listened, I invited her to share what wisdom she would have for me as a father related to that topic. I shared with her that our two youngest daughters – adopted through foster care from the Lancaster County Department of Children and Youth here in PA – carry some of the clear markers of trauma. She responded by sharing that she had been learning much about the importance of our birth stories and how they shape our experiences and expectations as we move through life. She encouraged me, gently and clearly, that it would be particularly challenging, and require great patience, to walk alongside the girls during childhood, before they are able to more completely process the experiences of their birth. Her advice was stunningly simple and profound (and matched those of our counselors, social workers and experienced adoptive parents here). I couldn’t help but smile as I thought about the path that had led this one-time orphan from a place of neglect and lack, to becoming a voice who could now offer perspective and wise counsel to one who was attempting to father a child who came from circumstances similar to her own. Only God could author such a story, but He uses humans to compose chapters like this.
While Mary was not as willing to share initially, God gave me some insight through asking a few questions to invite her to consider how her current choices to either move toward or away from what she knew He wanted her to do were critical. She reluctantly began to open up about what she desired and how she knew it was in contrast to what God desired for her. I acknowledged that this is the real challenge that all of us face – throughout life – to continue to lay down our lives, agree with God and choose based on the wisdom He has given us. Though completely different from my exchange with Stella and Millicent, it was also so encouraging to me. The children of NV were maturing, moving into adulthood and they were continuing to be shepherded by the wisdom of God’s word which had been faithfully sown into them during the years that they had spent at NV. I was so blessed by these three individual stories and what they spoke to me about the supernatural culture that you have worked with God to create at Naomi’s Village.
As Simon and I headed home from Nakuru that day, I asked if I could meet his mother, who keeps a small shop in Nakuru. We made a brief stop for a soda, a hug and some encouragement with his mother before heading back to NV. Along the way, we pulled into the Java House where part of our team was wrapping up a late lunch after their safari. As we entered, I was thrilled to see you and Julie there and Simon and I joined you in the booth for what was like a punctuation mark on this year’s trip to NV. I shared with you stories from the day and we exchanged stories that had been impactful from the previous six years and the teams of students that have come from Linville to NV. You noted the way that it is impossible for us to even say the name of LiNVille without including NV…it was a simple but for me deeply profound moment of connecting the life flow of these two ministries – separated by an ocean and thousands of miles – that are part of the work that God is doing in building His Kingdom today.
This morning in a dark, frosty Lancaster County cornfield, I was back there.
I hurried back into the house and began to write this down to share with you. It is now almost 6 am…I am sharing this with you while it is still fresh with me. I have often marveled at the way our lives have been so connected even though you two and I have spent almost no time together face to face. Truly your impact on my life has been great, likely greater than you know.
Know that I am grateful for the ways you have spent your lives in Kenya so that our community here at Linville High could be enriched by the lives of each of your children in Mai Mahiu. Millicent’s arrival tomorrow feels to me like a Christmas miracle…one that simply doesn’t happen without the thousand yeses of Bob & Juile…without great sacrifice and trevail. Thank you for the way that you have lived and loved. It has changed my life, the lives of our students and therefore the history of this region of the world.